ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts blog seeks to bring together all levels of project management and business analysis expertise, from diverse industries and perspectives, across business groups and information technology. Our goal is build successful collaboration and share content, best practices, techniques, and networking.

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Monday, December 22, 2014

We’ve published a lot of inspiring and thought-provoking
posts this year about project management, business analysis, leadership and
more, so we wanted to take a moment to look back on the most popular posts of
2014. Here are the topics our readers enjoyed the most this year:

Leadership
Lessons: Paul R. Williams: Paul R. Williams, Leader of Project
Management, PAi, talked to us about how PMOs add value to the organization.
Today, PMOs are a strategic imperative for the C-Suite to deliver projects
aligned with key strategic initiatives. Project Managers are in high demand
today; Williams will give us keen insight into recruiting, training and
retaining key program staff. To read the
full post, click
here.

Here
Comes The Boom! An NFL Champion Illustrates Key Business Analysis Skills:
As business analysis practitioners, we certainly appreciate the analytical
style of Richard Sherman and his LOB brothers. In addition to
conducting a sort of pre-game analysis, we too must be able to conduct
game-time analysis and make adjustments, where needed. For example,
it is important for practitioners to understand stakeholders early on. Whether
by talking to the actual stakeholder, consulting with other practitioners who
have worked with them, or some other method, we need to understand certain
things about our stakeholders, including (but not limited to) the
stakeholder's view of the problem or opportunity at hand, expectations
of a solution, and anticipated level of involvement with the
initiative. To read the full post, click
here.

Leadership
Lessons to Live By: In virtually every industry that exists today,
leaders must set aside more time to reflect and assess their thinking,
capabilities, and strategies. It is crucial that they evaluate how their
leadership brand is being perceived by others and whether or not it requires a
tune-up. We highlighted some key leadership lessons that you should live
by. To read the full post, click
here.

The
5 Best Free Project Management Tools: There are effective free project
management tools out there - some are more robust than others, but all of them
provide ways to collaborate and complete projects quicker. We found five of the
best free project management tools that may make your job easier. To read the full post, click
here.

Big
Data and Project Management: Today, organizations are taking strategic
risks to add business value through innovative big data initiatives. Big data
is a blanket term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it
becomes difficult to process using available data management tools
or conventional data processing applications. Tom Davenport, author of
“Big Data at Work” has worked with many companies and he’s uncovered key
principles around five key areas to be successful at big data projects. To read the full post, click
here.

Agile
State of Mind: Are you wondering how to choose which project management
method to deliver a successful project? Organizations today have to be more
competitive in the marketplace so choosing the best practices and methods for
your organization and projects is important. Agile is a set of values and
principles, not a pre-defined process with obvious areas of limitation.
Waterfall is a model based on development method that is linear and sequential.
We put together the top four criteria to choose the best fit of methodologies
at the right time for the right customer. To read the full post, click here.

Women
in Leadership: Jo Miller: Jo Miller, CEO Women’s Leadership Coaching
Inc. sat down with us to talk about women in leadership. Today, women make up
over 50 percent of the workforce, are entrepreneurs, hold key leadership
positions and serve on board of directors. Miller will give us her insight into
the challenges women face in the workplace, how to overcome these obstacles and
become a more empowered leader. To read
the full post, click
here.

Leadership
Lessons: Dr. Alicia Aitken: Dr.
Alicia Aitken, managing director Asia Pacific, Human Systems International
(HSI), sat with us to talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s
competitive business landscape. According to Aitken, being authentic makes
great leader stand out in a crows these days. Today’s world is full of
leadership models, business school taught methods and processes. Leaders stand
out by being authentic and true to who they are and who they are leading. To read the full post, click
here.

Monday, December 15, 2014

"Companies with high leadership qualities were six
times more likely to be among the top 20 financial performers of all
organizations."

Want to do your part to launch your organization into the top 20?

We are excited to announce that NACCM and the Windsor Leadership Group have
partnered together to bring you a truly unique learning event: Creating Magic
through Leadership & Service Excellence. This learning event offers the
skills and insights you need to further develop your leadership skills (based
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train over 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World!) and secure your organization's
spot at the top.

Facilitator William Greenwald, Founder & Chief
Neuroleaderologist, Windsor Leadership Group will lead attendees through
self-exploration, Disney-based leadership and service case studies, hands-on
learning exercises and group experiences in the Disney theme parks. This
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development and the ability to design and sustain high performing leadership
teams and service cultures.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

These days, project management can be a touchy subject, especially
when it comes to project failures. But, knowledge, strategy and precautionary
tactics can help project managers avoid serious project management pitfalls.

"If you're a tried and true waterfall type of project
management shop and you go in and change to an agile shop, that's a big change…
in principles and also asking a lot of people to partake in that change. Some
folks are resistant to it, especially if there's not an immediate payoff. The
immediate impact will actually be less effectiveness, maybe less efficiency, but
you have to hold true to the fact that long term, it's going to pay off." -
Randy McGraw, SVP of technology and operational services at service provider
West IP Communications

Have a project leader
to provide feedback.

"You may know the technology and service inside and
out--but it is still important to have someone on your side who can actively
participate and provide insight and things of nature change management." -
McGraw

Don’t let deadlines
run your project.

"Let's focus on the right solution [first] and then
figure out how to get it done in the time frame we have to. Whether we have to
[divide it], phase it, or defer some work. Taking that approach of what's the
right end game and making sure you set your project and your approach up to get
you there ultimately is most important…Help people from falling into those
pitfalls of time-driven decision making." - Kevin Riley, CTO of Sonus
Networks

Approach project
management one step at a time.

"When you do these projects, they can be very complex
[and] you can get caught up in looking at the full body of work and all the
details, and it becomes hard to wrap your head around the plan.” - Riley

Stay detail-oriented and
streamlined.

"Make sure you minimize details, but also make sure
your plans around those [finite number of] details are perfect." - Bill Scudder, CIO of Sonus Networks

Avoid bureaucracy.

"I try not to have a lot of bureaucracy around project
management because I think that can actually slow things down." - Scudder

Provide feedback
throughout the process.

"We do start with a process where we have an exec
review board for large project. We call it the IPAC. IT project approval
board. They come and present the problems they're trying to solve, the
resources they need, etc. If they're stuck, we also do a traffic-light
review… so we have a funnel of large projects that go through that.” - Scudder